Frank Castle DCM (S1-S1)
Frank Castle/The Punisher has appeared in the DC/Marvel RPG, Season 1. |- | |} * Special Note: The Punisher storyline and continuity (circa The Punisher Max series) is being rebooted and retold in this RPG. Some creative liberties and license (such as Frank's younger age and his military service being during the first Gulf War) have been taken for creative and storytelling purposes, as well as for modernization purposes. Character History "Those who do evil to others - the killers, the rapists, psychos, sadists - you will come to know me well. Frank Castle is dead. Call me... The Punisher." - Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher Earlier Life Francis David Castiglione was born on February 16th, 1970 in New York City to Francis, Sr. and Betty Castiglione. He performed well at every school he went to and upon graduating high school, looked at various career opportunities. He originally had interest in becoming a Roman Catholic priest and studied to become one, but he changed his mind because he was unable to forgive those who did evil and harmed the innocent. Around this time, Francis married his high school sweetheart Maria and she was already pregnant with their first child prior to when Francis then became interested in joining the Armed Forces, enlisting in the United States Marine Corps and undergoing heavy training. He quickly excelled in his training, graduating from the USMC's boot camp and undergoing further training with the USMC's Reconnaissance, Force Reconnaissance, and Sniper Schools. He would soon also undergo more training with the U.S. Army Airborne School, and U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Team, becoming a Navy SEAL. Francis would learn survival skills through his training from a Native American scout named Phan Bighawk. Military Service And Career After completing all of his training, Francis legally changed his name to Frank Castle, as it was much easier to spell and pronounce, and the first Gulf War loomed ahead. He enlisted without hesitation to serve his country and fellow soldiers in the conflict and oversaw combat in all of the Gulf War's major battles, while serving in the USMC's Special Forces Unit. He quickly rose to the rank of Captain during his service in the Gulf War and willingly re-enlisted for a second tour. His combat experience gave him a strong killer instinct and willpower to survive and fight back if it meant saving his own life or the life of someone close to him. His true willpower and dedication in the line of fire was put to it's ultimate limit when his base was under heavy attack from Iraqi soldiers, Frank single-handedly massacring them all and emerging as the only survivor of the base assault. After the Gulf War ended, Frank received numerous awards and accolades for his service and the heroism he displayed. He was awarded with the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, the Congressional Medal Of Honor, a Navy Cross, a Bronze Star, three Silver Stars and four Purple Hearts. Frank's career with the military was far from finished, as after returning home, he found work as a Black Ops instructor for the FBI in Upstate New York, and would also do some field work for the FBI in the same area. He balanced his career as a combat instructor, FBI agent and a family man, his wife Maria bearing two children, Frank III and Lisa. After such a harrowing ordeal overseas, things seemed to be going well for the Castle Family. Tragedy In 1996, Frank and his entire family that included his extended clan were having a large celebration in New York's Central Park, when they accidentally witnessed a Mafia execution of an informant who'd been hung from a tree. Wanting to eliminate any and all witnesses, the Costa Crime Family killed all of the Castle Family except Frank, who was the only survivor after he tried to fight back against his family's killers. After recovering from his wounds, Frank worked with the New York Police Department to identify all of the shooters, but the NYPD had been unable to do anything due to the Costa Crime Family having strong ties with the NYPD. Disgusted and enraged at the NYPD's blatant corruption and incompetence, and feeling the need for vengeance, Frank decided to take the law into his own hands. Frank felt that Frank Castle died when his family did and that he didn't survive the incident; The Punisher was born in his place. Vigilante Crusade After becoming The Punisher, Frank stockpiled on as many weapons as he could obtain, both legally and illegally, and embarked on a personal mission of vengeance to eradicate crime and criminals from the city. With help from his one and only true ally, computer hacker Linus "Microchip" Lieberman, Frank had vast access to weaponry and technology, and he spent much time customizing many of his weapons for more efficient use in combat. Using his weapons and combat skills to his advantage on the streets, The Punisher continues to prowl the city streets and hunting down every type of criminal imaginable, from basic street hoodlums and mobsters, to sadists, pedophiles, rapists, gun runners, drug dealers, etc. no criminal is safe from The Punisher's wrath and rampage. Of all of the criminals he's faced and killed, he has a particularly high disdain for pedophiles and those who harm children and animals. Since 1996, The Punisher has been on the prowl, wiping out criminals and crime syndicates all over the nation and inadvertently making himself a target of not only law enforcement, but also criminals who consider him their Public Enemy Number One. While law enforcement considers him a dangerous criminal and a threat to society, he occasionally has been let go by honest cops and federal agents who view his actions as helpful, especially when legal technicalities help certain criminals to walk away without punishment. Frank will employ every method of murder, torture, mayhem and general violence to eradicate every criminal organization he can, and will also eliminate corrupt cops, politicians and city officials. He has numerous hideouts in various states where he often stores weapons, ammunition, rations and other supplies, and constantly works out and eats well with a balanced diet to maintain his strong and durable physique, which is a requirement for his war on crime. He spends copious amounts of time planning his next course of action to strike back at criminals and has devoted his entire existence to annihilating crime. He is always careful never to kill or harm innocents in his crossfire, having a moral code to a degree with his lethal tactics that have frequently drawn the negative attention of other heroes and vigilantes who don't employ lethal force. Role in the DC/Marvel RPG, Season One Hunting It was a January night on 2009 when The Punisher stormed a crackhouse in New York City after monitoring some suspicious activity there for a few weeks, and his suspicions were confirmed. He raided the crackhouse and brutally killed off many of the dealers and enforcers inside before confronting the crackhouse's leader, Ice. Interrogating Ice for information on the crackhouse's roof and threatening to drop him from it, Ice revealed that he had been making drug deals with a Gotham City mobster named Sal Maroni, who needed additional income and got it from drug deals. Despite the information, The Punisher dropped Ice from the roof and killed him, before heading off with some drug money he stole from the crackhouse. The Punisher was headed for his underground subway tunnel hideout, when upon going to the terminal, he saw an armed mugger attempting to mug a young woman. He brutally killed the mugger, getting the attention of Spider-Man, who frowned upon murderous methods of justice and crime-fighting. The Punisher spoke of why he took the approach he did and spoke of the loss he suffered when he lost his family, but while Spider-Man sympathized, it wasn't enough for him to let him walk away. Before Spider-Man could do anything, the escaped killer Carnage attacked them both in the subway. The Punisher tried to help, but Spider-Man and Carnage's fight continued onto an oncoming train. The Punisher headed for his hideout and while there, received intel from a street informant named T-Dawg that his family's killers, Billy Russoti and Bruno Costa, were at the Russoti Manor, The Punisher had a new hunting ground to go for that night. The Punisher made his way to the Russoti Manor, and wasted no time in waging war on it, planting claymore mines all over and then laying waste using his M-60 E3 light machine gun and grenades to make short of many of the mobsters at the scene. He killed Bruno Costa and severely wounded Russoti, but he had to escape when the NYPD arrived at the scene. He returned to his hideout later that night and arming up, he headed for Gotham City inside his armored van, having gotten intel from Costa that he had ties there with the Falcone and Thorne Crime Families. Gathering Information Upon arriving in Gotham City, The Punisher was already at work killing the criminals who ran rampant in the city following The Joker's spree of mayhem months earlier. He killed a drug dealer and wounded his customers after finding the drug deal in an alleyway and confronting a costumed young man who he assumed was a hero of sorts. Later that night, he abducted and coerced an informant for Sal Maroni into getting information from Maroni, duct-taping a timed claymore mine to his chest to coerce him. The informant, acting out of fear, agreed, and The Punisher was able to get the information he wanted. He knocked out the informant and went for Maroni, only to meet with a rather sultry vigilante. Enter The Catwoman The Punisher had a bit of a standoff with the leather-clad vigilante known by the media and the public as the Catwoman. He managed to wound her after she evaded him easily a couple of times, but she was able to get back and put up a good enough fight. The two got to know each other a bit better, when The Punisher revealed his tormented past and Catwoman her own, but despite her words of wisdom how violence wouldn't ease The Punisher's pain, he acknowledged this and made it clear he did what he did because it was his choice and his alone. After Catwoman left, Maroni awoke and The Punisher interrogated him. Maroni didn't reveal anything The Punisher had already found out, but The Punisher taped a claymore to his hands as a means of punishment for Maroni's past crimes and left him to be found and potentially saved, before leaving to continue his vigilante crusade in Gotham City later. He settled in an old and abandoned garage in the city's industrial district to lay low, and he seemed to attract the attention of the Catwoman, who's real identity was Selina Kyle. She was very insistent at helping him with his work, but he flatly refused to the point of prompting a brutal fight between them that resulted in both nearly getting killed. Despite this violent encounter, Selina would later become an ally of The Punisher's (albeit very reluctantly on The Punisher's part) when her insistent nature persuaded him enough to allow her to serve with him as recon of sorts. Gotham's New Dark Avenger The Punisher continued his violent crusade against crime in Gotham, eliminating various criminal groups that included a child porn ring and drug smugglers, and also saving the life of a young street hooker named Holly Robinson from a crooked cop. He even hunted the Falcone and Thorne Crime Families, succeeding in killing Carmine Falcone. His violent tactics often had him at odds with Selina, who opposed his lethal methods and felt they weren't true justice. The Punisher was aware of the city's vigilante known as Batman, who was wanted by the authorities for allegedly killing a few officers with the crooked GCPD. With Batman seemingly inoperational, The Punisher became something of Gotham's new dark anti-hero, using his deadly tactics to kill criminals in the city. After killing a drug smuggler and escaping from police, he fled through the city sewers and had an encounter with Killer Croc, which he narrowly survived. The Punisher would find himself to be something of a target of many of Batman's foes, who considered him a prime threat due to his murderous nature and his lethal force that he would never hesitate to employ. The Punisher also had another ally around this time, the brutal vigilante known as Rorschach, who informed him that Billy Russoti was still alive and now terribly disfigured. He would eventually meet with Batman after doing a routine recon of sorts he killed a gang of thugs in an alleyway, with Batman confronting him about his lethal tactics and how killing wasn't justice. The Punisher insisted his methods were effective and Batman's non-lethal approach was a failure. Possibly due to The Punisher's murderous nature, Batman did not immediately strike against him and instead let him go for the time being. The Punisher traced a monorail station where The Joker and the deadly assassin known as Deathstroke were wreaking havoc, The Punisher having had an encounter with Deathstroke before at Selina's apartment. A winding fight occurred at the monorail station between The Punisher and these two, as well as the Russotis and the escaped Harvey Dent. The Punisher survived and put Deathstroke out of commission for the time being, but The Joker, Russotis and Harvey Two-Face got away. He would deal with them another time, as he headed back to his garage hideout. It was also during this time his partnership with Selina got increasingly rocky, with Selina disobeying orders he would give her, and a distant ancestor named Jonah Hex allied himself with The Punisher during this time, Hex having somehow travelled through time from the Old West. The Punisher's relationship with Selina was tested further when Selina was kidnapped from the garage hideout by an assassin by the name of Hellhound. The Punisher would locate and rescue Selina from Hellhound's assassins, before seeking out Hellhound himself at a Gotham jail cell after posing as a GCPD officer after he knocked out an off-duty officer. The Punisher learned from Hellhound that Deathstroke was still alive and already forming his own special army with the sole intent of killing The Punisher. The Punisher killed Hellhound and returned to the garage hideout where Selina and Hex were, and they moved out of the garage and to an old apartment complex to lay low for the time being. The complex was relatively empty, their only neighbors being Joan Garth, Dave Spacker and Nathaniel Bumpo. Guilty Conscience After settling and getting some new equipment from Microchip, The Punisher resumed with his vigilante quest in Gotham to find The Joker and his crew, after The Joker was the confirmed murderer of a suburban family. The Punisher managed to locate The Joker's hideout at an old and inoperational zoo, following a tip given to him by Hex. Upon arriving at the zoo, he located many of his foes and targets that included the Russotis and Quentin Glass, engaging in a deadly gunfight with them and many of The Joker's henchmen. The Punisher was ultimately subdued after being struck by Scarecrow's Fear Toxin, causing him to hallucinate and leave him vulnerable. He awoke shortly after to find himself being interrogated for information by The Joker's crew, when Catwoman came to the scene. The Punisher thought Catwoman betrayed him and set him up, and after she freed his exhausted self from his captivity, he knocked her out and nearly tortured her at their apartment, trying to get her to confess to being a cohort of The Joker; she was merely posing to free The Punisher the entire time and never turned on him. The Punisher, devastated that he thought Selina betrayed him and for putting her through near torture, was about to commit suicide when Rorschach arrived at the apartment, popping inside randomly like usual. The Punisher explained a little of what happened, when the sounds of a commotion outside caught his attention. The Punisher and Rorschach headed outside to intervene, saving the life of a young woman from three rapists, whom the two vigilantes dispatched. After injuring two police officers who came to the scene, The Punisher took in the young girl, learning she was a victim of an Eastern European slave trading ring in Gotham City. Disgusted with what he learned, The Punisher had new targets on his list to punish. The Slavers After amending with Selina over her near torture, The Punisher accepted her help in tracing the location of the slaving operation in Gotham, and Selina seemed to recall being a victim of the ring when she was younger. Doing research at the Gotham Public Library and hearing a speech at the Gotham Community College by social worker Jen Cooke, The Punisher learned everything he needed to about the slave trading ring, ran by the sadistic Bulat Family who were also hardened combat veterans of the Serbian conflict. The Punisher carefully planned his hits on the Bulats, and he learned of their location in Gotham after raiding a nightclub owned by criminal Antony Pavla and getting the information he needed. With that, he set for a brothel on the outskirts of Gotham with Catwoman to rescue some slave girls the Bulats were holding, only to encounter interference from police that forced them to abandon the initial rescue attempt. The following two days, The Punisher set out to accomplish his mission, managing to free the slave girls and brutally interrogate Cristu Bulat by disemboweling him and learning more about the operation; where his cruel father Tiberiu lived in the city and the other associates they had. The Punisher left Cristu to bleed to death before narrowly surviving and escaping an assault from Tiberiu's mercenaries at the scene, Tiberiu aware of The Punisher's actions and wanting vengeance for them. After surviving an experience with a motorist who picked him up before trying to kill him (The Punisher killed him before he could do anything), The Punisher continued to carry out his plan, this time going for an associate of the Bulats named Vera Konstantin. He brutally assaulted her in her work office and retrieved an incriminating file on a crooked detective named Westin who had connections with the Bulats. After getting the information he needed, he proceeded to kill Vera by letting her fall out of her office window frame after he smashed her against the shatterproof glass window but the force of the blows loosened the window and made it fall out. He set out for Tiberiu later that night, planting thirty pounds of TNT in the drain near his home in Gotham. When Tiberiu's reinforcements arrived at the scene, The Punisher detonated the TNT and killed many of the reinforcements before going for Tiberiu, who held one of the slave girls hostage. He managed to rescue the girl by calling Tiberiu a coward, which he resented. Tiberiu moved to attack, but The Punisher injured him and tied him to a chair in the home's cellar after setting the remaining slave girls free. Dialing the number of Detective Westin and threatening him with blackmail if he didn't work to shut down the Balats' entire slaving trade, The Punisher got compliance from the crooked detective before video-taping the agonizing demise of Tiberiu after dousing him in gasoline and setting him ablaze. With the video evidence Westin needed, the crooked detective complied and The Punisher had one major mission accomplished in Gotham. Man's Best Friend Upon returning to his apartment, The Punisher saw Selina hadn't returned after she helped the rescued slave girl find shelter. He tried to rest but was unable to and he set out into the streets for a walk out of boredom, when he heard suspicious activity from an old factory nearby. He discovered an illegal dog fighting ring went on inside the old factory, and out of pure disgust, he killed the owner of the operation and the abusive trainer of a rottweiler forced to attack against his own will. The Punisher took in the wounded rottweiler and treated him for his injuries. He named the rottweiler Max and would use the trustworthy dog as another ally in his war on crime. Meanwhile, he was visited by Microchip later that night, his main ally having been abducted by Quentin Glass and Two-Face earlier, his mother murdered by Glass. The Punisher by now reached his pinnacle of disgust, wanting to punish as many guilty as he possibly could, at whatever the cost. Regular Appearance Frank Castle stands five feet ten inches tall and weighs about two-hundred pounds. He has short black hair and blue eyes. His body type is average with a good bit of muscle. He bears an array of scars from his military service during the first Gulf War, as well as several scars from various fights he's had over the years as a vigilante. Since becoming The Punisher, Frank almost always wears black clothes, which consists of either jeans or combat pants and most notable of all, a T-shirt with a white skull symbol on it, adopting the skull as a personal good luck symbol. He was given the skull T-shirt as a gift by his family upon returning home from his military service. The skull is identical to a similar symbol he used during the Gulf War as a means of good luck. He wears the skull as both a symbol of good luck and a symbol to honor his family, and to represent the punishment he dishes out to criminals. He frequently wears a long black leather trenchcoat which makes it easier for him to conceal his many weapons. He very often wears holsters that are easy to conceal under his trenchcoat to make weapon concealment easier, especially when hunting for criminals. He almost always wears a flack jacket which sports the skull logo and the flack jackets he wears tend to be very strong and resistant to numerous bullet calibers and take an exceptionally high number of hits to wear down and be rendered unusable. Trademark Gear The Punisher employs numerous types of firearms and bladed/edged weaponry in his war on crime. Some of his favored and preferred weapons include M-16 and M4 assault rifles, M-60 light machine guns, pistol-grip shotguns, Barrett sniper rifles, Browning and Colt .45 automatic pistols and Gerber Mark II knives as well as his personal favorite knife, the KA-BAR. He frequently employs ballistic knives as well. He frequently customizes his weapons for more efficient use and will often add equipment such as laser sights, grenade launchers, targeting and night-vision scopes, silencers, flash suppressors and large-capacity magazines. He frequently uses hollow points and armor-piercing rounds to make his arsenal even more effective. He'll occasionally even use compound bows, with various types of arrows including sawtoothed arrows, poison-tipped arrows and explosive-tipped arrows. Being highly skilled in demolitions, The Punisher is also very skilled at using explosives and has planted C-4 charges, Claymore mines and other such explosives with great ease and efficiency, and has especially done so when rigged explosives to enemy hideouts or strongholds. He's skilled with using grenades and is expert at tossing them towards enemies with the proper timing. He will occasionally employ heavier and more exotic weaponry as well, which includes flamethrowers, miniguns, rocket and grenade launchers and even particle weapons. Microchip often helps him obtain some of these more exotic weapons and helps him to keep them all in good condition and keep them stored away where only he can access them. Microchip has also helped Frank with several vehicles, heavily armoring them with bulletproof armor and even rigging them with mounted guns to help him more efficiently raid criminal hideouts and strongholds. Some of the armored vehicles Frank has occasionally employed include vans, motorcycles, trucks and sports cars. Category:Military Category:Vigilantes Category:Mass Murderers Category:FBI